I CAN’T TELL YOU
Yes, Have Some!
Independent
I Can’t Tell You’s five song EP is likely far removed from anything you’ve heard no matter what you usually listen to. This is not dark, extreme or brutal which is apparent from the band’s name and cover art of Yes, Have Some! Not exactly alternative, rockabilly, country, acid rock or 60’s bubblegum, but something of those genres is funneled into their formula. Whatever it is, you know something different is in the works right away. This is one of those recordings that is strictly an acquired taste, I admittedly had to listen a few times before starting to understand what’s happening here, and I’m still trying to decide if it’s serious or a novelty or both. I needed some information concerning this and Jake Daley was accommodating enough to send me comprehensive backgrounds on each song. Keys To Your Place is loosely inspired by an episode of Law & Order in which a landlord is stalking one of this tenants by investigating her apartment when she is not home. The lyrics reflect on the band’s affinity for crime drama and true crime stories. The track is apparently from the stalker’s point of view and has a sort of love struck feel which makes for a pretty twisted opener. Daley said one hundred vocal tracks were recorded for it by the way; this means a big sound to expect here. Half A Shot To Drunk And Broke Again is musically inspired by Johnny Cash, and its subject matter is basically going to a bar and drowning one’s sorrows. For a song with a weird title, Buttercups Bending Softly Towards The Light is an instrumental influenced by Celtic music and Black Sabbath songs including Orchid from Masters Of Reality. For me this piece leans more toward Sabbath than Loreena McKennitt, but yeah I could hear some Celtic themes in there. Plow In The Stars, which began as a folk song, refers to the Starry Plough, what the Irish named for the Big Dipper. Daley says Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time was a reference point as the song developed. I can hear this in the vocals but enough of the fold influence was retained since it was first written and for some reason I could hear some Smashing Pumpkins. The lyrics were written to be ironic as they depict the dreams of youth giving way to the “adult crash” we’re supposed to experience, though my own concept of joining adulthood is taking the freedom to follow one’s own bliss as opposed to settling down into the family/parenthood experience (if this is the right way to mature, why do so many bitch about how unfulfilled they are?) Trip Your Way is another song that was at first minimalist like Keys To Your Place and according to Daley was musically inspired by Matthew Sweet. This one is about being in a situation where you have to agree to disagree with someone you are attached to. I’ve said a lot about this EP already, and all told there is a wide range of influences you wouldn’t expect an underground band to draw from, and all of them together are worth hearing. -Dave Wolff
Track list:
1. Keys To Your Place
2. Half A Shot To Drunk And Broke Again
3. Buttercups Bending Softly Towards The Light
4. Plow In The Stars
5. Trip Your Way
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